Morels are a sustainable wild food source that can sometimes grow in abundance. If you're new to foraging, make sure you have identified mushrooms correctly and be sure to cook morels before consuming them. We encourage people to be aware of the ecosystem they are harvesting. We usually try to harvest in wilderness areas where the ecosystems aren't fragile or at risk and there are no local foragers. If you're in a local forest be aware that others might also harvest that spot with their family's. Using carrying containers with holes will allow the morel spore to escape to new areas that didn't previously have active mycelium. If you're concerned about large scale harvesting like this and aren't familiar with mushrooms, read more below. Mushrooms are the fruiting body of the organism. The mycelium is the living organism under the ground, harvesting the morel does not harm the organism. A common analogy is that harvesting mushrooms is comparable to picking an apple from a tree, although it is a bit more complicated than that. As mentioned above, be aware of the state of the ecosystem you are harvesting in. If it's a fragile or damaged area it can be better to not harvest to allow it to recover. In the case of this video, we are harvesting over 100km into the bush from a small town, where no locals harvest apart from the ones we have taught, and other commercial pickers. Morel mycelium is amazing because it forms vast amounts of sclerotia that are able to self reproduce more mycelium underground without the need to fruit morels. In the case of western North America, where we are harvesting, these mostly coniferous forests don't often produce morels in large quantities unless a forest fire occurs. In many cases the morel mycelium spends long periods of time, up to a century in the case of this patch, growing underground via sclerotia germination. For reasons not fully understood by science, a forest fire causes the mycelium to fruit morels the following spring - there are many theories as to why. Although forest fires can be devastating, they are a natural part of a forests life cycle, especially in northern boreal forests of north western Canada and Alaska. Morels and other wild harvested food are very nutrient rich because the soil is healthy and full of microbes in the environments we harvest. Microbes help escort mineral nutrients from the soil into the food we are harvesting, this is one of the reasons that wild food is so valued. Randy, our oldest harvester, has been able to return to the same pine mushroom patch for 35 years and a few seasons ago was one of the best harvests he has seen in that area. This is because he has always harvested in a sustainable way, and takes the time to spread older mushrooms to new areas to expand the patch, becoming beneficial to the environment rather than detrimental. In some cases have the opportunity as harvesters to benefit the ecosystem, without the use of soil tilling or heavy chemical fertilizers like in conventional agriculture. We think that alongside farming, foraging can be a great supplementary food source that needs to be valued for what it is and not looked down upon. In order to do that we, as harvesters, need to be aware of what and how to harvest responsibly. Be safe out there everyone!
We wanted to capture the memories in case we aren't able to do it in the future, we can at least re-live it here. I bet you had some great moments out picking during those 24 years! Thanks for the comment.
Hey Alex. Love your channel. We all garden between wild harvesting. When we’re out for morel season I always have my fingers crossed that my auto irrigation is holding up back at home.
That was fun to watch. Like many things, the little precious values and work to get them. Many people think it is simple and yeah there are good days but its the work that seekers put in that give these solid yields.
Very true. A lot of time goes into planning and even then it's still always a risk. Once everything is taken into account, it is usually a hard earned yet fulfilling reward.
What an awesome harvest day you had!! Congrats also on the number of your subscribers that is going up, not as fast as I think you deserve however. Thanks so much for sharing your Morel season with us.
Great videos guys ..really enjoying them ,not sure how many more years I will get out picking but watching your “team” in action gives me a mushroom fix. I did get out a bit out of Monte Lake last year , but never found anything close to this and I did some pretty decent hikes.. Hoping for a fall flush this year but we need way more moisture than last...your crew works great together ..those packs must be a little over or right around 80 packing out ? No way I could do that now ...60 maybe..course when the time comes I will know lol.hard to leave them behind .I did pack out 73 lbs of Matsu a few years ago..I was over 60 then So not so bad ..it was awkward to say the least ..but when you make the truck so rewarding ..cheers and thanks
Also hoping for a better fall mushroom flush, last Chanterelle season was the worst I've ever seen on the Island - too dry then right into a cold snap. Yeah packs are between 80 and 100lbs plus some gear weight, but the terrane was easy in this patch. Much harder hauling a pack through matsu ground. That feeling of getting back to the truck is always in our minds as we're walking out!
It always seems like feast or famine when I go searching myself. Most I ever had gotten was maybe 3 pounds after going for a day. You guys really make it seem so easy.
It was definitely a better than average year for us because the patch just kept going like that every day. We did drop to our knees, but it was to pick!
Thanks for the comment Bruce. Spent a lot of time with the drone and gps, along with scouting on foot, to find this area. Grateful that it was worth the effort!
@Northern Wild Harvest never thought of doing that, from lots of Turkey hunting and watching forums between temps/ elevation found some spots like this off on x maps just pick a spot and go with the family, pick about 6lbs an hour between 2-3 people pretty easy! Yall killed it!
@@daiserbeams_adventures7486 Awesome, picking with the family is always great! Doesn't matter how much you're getting as long as you're having a good time. After days like the one in this video, I usually lay awake in my tent scanning the topography on my gps for a while, still buzzing from the harvest. Thanks for the comment.
Wow! are you harvesting now? I live in Pennsylvania and it's been cold here. Awesome haul! I have only ever found like 4 old morels, so I have yet to try any I am sad to say.
Awesome! Love when they grow like that, we just released a short today of a massive morel. This is from our 2022 season and at the end of the season we get into some really really nice big greys. Thick walls and smokey for sure!
What are the economics of a process like this? 445 lbs fresh vs how many lbs dried? How much money do you make per pound? Is it a reliable business? What does your buyer do with them, are they a restaurant? Wholesaler for grocery stores?
Wet to dry ratios vary depending on maturity of mushrooms and how wet they are when harvesting. Industry standard is 10 to 1, we aim for 8.5 to 1 or better if we can. The fresh price in the field varies dramatically but it's significantly less in Canada than in the US on average. Many of the large companies sell to Europe, we try to sell as much as we can domestically, or within North America when there is a demand. Ideally direct to consumer when possible. We're working with nature so it's not always "reliable" but between all the different things we harvest it is viable for us for a good portion of the year. For the amount of work and the risk involved, I wouldn't say it's as good as people might think, but we love doing it. I'm a horticulturist, but I work in multiple trades in the off season and I consider it to be easier work than most large scale mushroom picking. Keep in mind we sometimes travel up to 3000km one way and have weeks of work scouting and setting up before the harvest even begins. It is not easy money to do it consistently, it's hard earned but also mentally/physically rewarding.
@@northernwildharvest Thank you for your prompt and educational response! I appreciate your info on reliability and the logistics of something on this scale. Very cool to see! I'm located in Wisconsin and consider myself an amateur mycologist and forager and something like this would be a dream job for me: hours outside in the Rockies picking my favorite mushrooms. Wouldn't appreciate those Canadian blackflies though lol The blondes we have down here rarely produce in such waves as you've shown in this video, mostly in the 10s and 20s of lbs and I'm assuming that's why patch locations are so closely guarded in the Midwest (plus a lot of private property in the US) Regardless, getting out in the field and killing your lower back trimming morels is insanely rewarding like you said. Best of luck to you man
@@SluggerNugget Trying to get some responses in before we head out for this season! We’re going to be in some seriously wild areas this year. If you get a chance check out the beginning of the first vid on our channel were we explain a bit more of our involvement in the canadian mushroon industry. Up until recently we would handle some of the largest morel drying contracts in the north. When we run buying stations for larger companies the typical average for most pickers is between 20 and 30lbs from a day of harvesting, once averaged out. Wisconsin seems nice, we’re on Vancouver island but we harvest all over Canada. I’m also very interested in mycology, have been my whole life but most of my book knowledge is in plant and soil science from horticulture, along with field experience. In next weeks episode we get an absolutely massive fire morel blonde - Morchella tomentosa, they are a very interesting species of morel. The black flies are a nuisance for sure, mosquitoes often even worse. Almost had a hospital visit years ago from too many bites over a long period but it was worth it. Learned the hard way to wear the right clothing. Cheers and good luck this season! Stay safe out there :)
The thrill of the hunt and the excitement of the finds always inspire us, even when we hurt from the extreme physical efforts. The rewards are many, but being in nature is great for ones mental health. In today's stressful world, this becomes more attractive. It's very important to us that we share the knowledge we have learned so we can show others by example how to respect this wonderful natural resource and how to get the best quality product from wild harvesting. I hope everyone appreciates what we are sharing and that those that wild harvest show respect to the resource and nature. Please leave little sign of your passing and be safe and prepared out there. Full buckets to all!
Congrats for these amazing findings! I´ve never seen so many morels in my life than you found in just one spot. Is it true that burned areas are hotspots for morels in the next season? Maybe I should look out for bushfires nearby. However, morels in Germany prefer calcereous soils and we have mainly acidic soils in our surroundings.
In western North America the coniferous forest fires will usually be hotspots for morels the spring following a forest fire. We cover a large region in Canada and areas with spruce and pine often do well. Aspen, balsam fir and even cedar in some cases can also do well. We have acidic soil here in most coniferous forests, especially in the northern black spruce forests where there is thick muskeg composed of primarily acidic peat moss. If you do find morels in a burn in Germany, let us know, mushrooms are fascinating to us! :)
amazing video!! just wow!!! I once got a nice patch from an area where lightning caused a fire in the woods.. I must have gotten lucky because I've been back to that spot for around 5 years in a row covering the end of March April and early May and have never found another one since that first harvest.. in that same spot I mean.. but, I do have a honey hole.. I go to another area and have a consistent harvest every year. we walk through areas of pine and cedar that has no morels but when you reach the oak trees they are all over at the base of the trees.. we specifically seek out oak leaves and follow the trees and find them all over as long as the day is light and our legs will work.. we try go back about every 7 -10 days and harvest them for around 7 weeks.. mixtures of all colors.. im itching then I found this amazeballs video.. ive always wondered about all those CA wildfires and regretting not following my instincts and go hunting when I lived there.. I also dry mine and mostly rehydrate them in red or white wine depending on the dish.. the flavor is intense when doing this and using the residual wine of course.. cheers 🥂
@@tradergirl7067 Hey thanks for the great comment. The vast majority of the fires we harvest are lightning caused as well. We have had a similar experience to you with recurring morels in following years in certain deciduous tree species, rarely in the same volume as the spring following the fire though. Can relate to the long days harvesting, we tend to push beyond our physical limits with the excitement of finding a good patch. Not all fires here produce like you're seeing in this video, in fact the vast majority of the fire we we're on didn't produce very much. Great choice rehydrating in wine before cooking your morels, I've done that before and it was excellent. More videos like this one on our channel if you're interested!
They are plastic food baskets, same volume as a 5 gallon bucket. We don’t have extras for sale currently but might in the future. They are shipped in by the container full so they aren’t easy to come by. I briefly mentioned packframe setup in our “wood stove dryer” video but i can do a more in depth, dedicated video on how i do setup, if that would be helpful.
Hi Tracy, that would work in some situations. Mostly, the terrain and blow down would hinder that. Looking after and controlling the dogs around wildlife would be a distraction and concern with such a valuable product. I really love dogs but I'm too nomadic in the off season to take on that responsibility.
Man I miss those days, been picking commercially since 1991, wish I was younger. Y’all had Seven 5ks and a bucket? I know those cargo packs only hold seven 5ks. It work but Worth it. Hope you guys got at least 18 a pound
Hi Ralph, I bet you had some great harvests during your time in the bush. Yep the 5kg baskets hold about 11lbs to 12lbs when filling them with morels. Sadly no, the field price for fresh where we were was nowhere near 18/lb. Still a great day in the woods though!
Have you guys foraged this area for a long time or did you pick this area somehow? What are your tips for finding areas that produce this amount of morels?
Tips would vary based on your geographical location. If you’re in western NA then the previous years forest fires are a good place to look. We have harvested burns in the same region as this, in previous years, but never this exact spot. Found it by using gps and drone and knowing what details to look for.
@@northernwildharvest We've been to burn forests for the past three years. First year we found one morel, second year we found two, and last year we found our first 5 pounds! Looking to learn more about those details!
@@mmmmmray We will do a future video sharing some of our knowledge about picking burn morels in western NA. In brief, try checking areas where there are still some living trees. You might notice that a lot of the time we are picking in areas with orange spruce needles on the ground. The layer of needles create the same scenario as using mulch when gardening. They help retain moisture and reduce ground temperature swings because they insulate the soil, along with protecting from ash contamination. Will share more in a video dedicated to this subject in the future. Good luck this season Murray!
only found blacks like that once here in W.V. where lightning had struck a poplar tree on top a ridge and it was early, last week of March, bout 35 degrees, with a skift of snow on the ground
Interesting, thanks for sharing. We have picked lots of lightning caused fires with trembling aspen trees, which is a type of poplar and they often produce well in our experience. Neat that you harvested so early in the season close to the location of a strike.
Lol! Been using the same pair for about a decade, handy for getting branches out of the way too. They enjoy snipping mushrooms more than pruning trees!
This harvest was in a wilderness region in Canada. Our camp was on one of the few private properties in that area but the harvesting was on crown land/public land.
What state is this in? I live in Indiana our season is about to kick off. I hunt various species all year round. Just had a good season oyster mushroom hunting this past winter
We're in western Canada, still have a while to go before the season starts here. Nice! Oyster mushrooms are awesome, they grow on the Alder trees here most commonly.
I’m interested is buying in bulk if you sell them that way. I sell my finds but always run out super fast. I’m looking to buy 20 plus pounds and more. I’m a cash in hand buyer. My town of Terre Haute Indiana goes bonkers over them and I make decent money just selling from a road side stand. What’s some prices for bulk deals if you do them?
We’ve gone back to fires many times 2 years after burning, sometimes we still get morels but not in the same volumes as as the year following the burn. Partially because the new green plant growth is so vigorous. This fire was mostly Spruce and Aspen, some pine mixed in, awesome mix of tree species for morels!
Beech wood, maple, mixed with limestone is one of the best combinations for morel mushrooms, for the highlands, and can be collected for more than two months, because the beech holds moisture due to the large shadows
@@successfuldayofwildfruits8107 We don’t get much beech here in western Canada, lots of maple though. The large canopy trees shade trees produce for longer here as well, in unburnt forests, we have been having bad summer dry spells in recent years. As for wildfires here, they are most often in our boreal forests, which are dominated by black Spruce in most places.
@@successfuldayofwildfruits8107 Yes it's different. Black Pine aren't a native plant to Canada. Black Spruce 'Picea mariana' is the most common conifer in Northern Canada, all the way up the arctic ocean. They often grow in thick sphagnum peat moss, or muskeg layers, which is often too thick for natural morels to grow through - until it burns away.
I have seen ones like it at Dubois agrinavation and some other supplies but the lid is prettt sweet. You have a brand name? Or supplier I could look up?
Very nice, forgiving terrain! We have much stiffer competition in the states picking burns, this looks like candyland. Do you happen to know the law on migrants picking burns in Canada. Is it different on first nations land than crown lands in regards to non-citizens picking?
It is usually a lot more competitive here than what you're seeing in this video, we just found an area nobody else did last season. Partially because there was over a million hectares of burn in BC. This was super easy ground, was a dream to harvest compared to what we usually deal with, as I'm sure you can relate to. To put it in perspective there were over 100 pickers camped on one road harvesting from an area similar in size to the area we were in on the other side of the same burn. It's a standard workers visa type situation to harvest here in Canada if you're not a Canadian citizen. You can't harvest on first nations land here unless given permission by the first nation, this applies to the actual settlement land.
You know what would help you out use two vehicles first one to drop you off closest to your way in and the truck closest to your way out y'all need a dirt bike or a quad for that person that drops off the truck for the way out ride the dirt bike or quad to the vehicle that's your way in I think that would help y'all out
Walk out wasn’t too far in this patch. Truck was about as far in as we could drive without getting stuck, the grassy road was decommissioned with a big burm. Quads were banned on this fire due to soil erosion issues in the area, would have been great otherwise!
We try to sell them fresh As soon as possible. If you mean the ones that we dry, they last for many years when stored well. Keep out of sunlight in a bag and box.
You know in the other video that you had the other morel mushrooms that you couldn't get too soon enough you all probably lost over 100 pounds fresh I wish that didn't happen that whole patch was blowed out
Yeah you’re right. There was a bunch of areas we never got to but hard to complain because we loaded every time we went out until the mushrooms we’re too old. One of the issues we had, was if we wanted to sell fresh, it was a very long drive to the mushroom buyer so that made it hard to do days longer than 10 hours picking.
Yep for sure, that's what we try to do. Taking the pack on and off is the hardest part so we try to put them down when we're surrounded by morels and then bucket pick until the packs are full before hiking them out. Definitely better to hike in a ways before picking, unless there's competition.
I'd like to have some mix morel mushrooms if they're not too expensive black ones white ones grey ones yellow ones I want to make some spor print so I can grow them I'd like to have them fresh fresher the better
Hi Edward, right now we only have dried morels available. They are a mix of what you see us picking here along with some very nice grey and blonde fire morels. Message us at northernwildharvest@gmail.com if you're interested. Thanks for checking out the video!
I assume these are picked for sale, which I'm not the biggest fan of..... But the amount of morels around is amazing and very cool to see. Beautiful landscape
We dry and sell the majority, along with what we take home for friends and family. We’re in western Canada picking a burn in a remote area - for the most part it’s a one time flush and we’re not taking away from any locals. It was a nice area, i’m glad most of the trees survived.
@@Dodgingsimulator that’s just the standard price range for burn morels in Canada most years, sadly. A lot of people weren’t finding more than 10lbs a day on this fire so it was tough going for many folks.
We do leave plenty and we only harvest mushrooms that are mature enough to be releasing spore. We are actually helping spread the spore by harvesting and carrying them across large distances. Sustainability is super important to us and with morels, we are actually able to help improve the mushroom growth in an area.
We leave lots and we’re harvesting mushrooms that are already releasing spore. We’re spreading spore to new areas that don’t have mushrooms as we hike out. We were able to return to this spot later in the season multiple times to harvest more - the patch had expanded each time!
Lukiest people in the whole wide world.. except for maybe my wife.. I bought her a $3 dollar scratch off crossword lottery ticket.. I'll be God damned if she didn't scratch all 10 words and hit $30,000 dollars. Cashed it in and Minnesota took 10 grand in taxes, we got $20,000 and made a down payment on a house.. but I still think 450lb.s of morel mushrooms is luckier than that!!!!... 😊😊😊
That wasn't luck! It was pure chance! 😂It was a great day picking morels which left me seeing them when I closed my eyes that night. Wow lucky scratch. I can only imagine the feeling as she kept uncovering the right letters.
I'm sorry but you guys are not playing fair... what about other mushroom lovers... can't you leave some for others... why ya gotta pick 500lbs. Of mushrooms other than pure GREED😠🥴
We’re harvesting burn morels, a one season flush in a wilderness area where there are no local harvesters. Some of the only land owners in that region were are friends, and they love what we do. It’s not greed, it’s hard earned sustainable food and there are much easier ways of making money.
445 lbs seems excessively excessive for human consumption, are there rules to keep you from taking it all? I am sure there is wildlife that actually needs those morels to survive. Oh the humanity.
Sarah, check out pinned comment if you have a chance. We are harvesting in wilderness areas where it recently burned. The only wildlife that occasionally will sample morels are mice, but even then it is rare. The other wildlife are spoiled for choice from the new plant growth after a burn, they do not touch the morels. Wild harvesting morels is a way of getting large amount of food, with little to no environmental impact, especially compared to modern agriculture.
@@northernwildharvest Thanks for the reply, I thought bears were an especially big consumer of mushrooms, I would think it would be an important source of food earlier in the season for them. I agree with you that harvesting them is definitely low impact, but that is a lot of mushrooms for a few guys! This is just my opinion, I love hunting for morels too, but I try and harvest only for a few meals that I can make with them while they are still fresh, it makes them that much better.
@@sarahturner8678 Keep in mind we are traveling very far distances to remote locations to harvest, this spot was over 115km into the bush from the closest town, which was a very small. We are very respectful to the wildlife and co-exist with them as well as we can. You can see in our videos that the mushrooms have not been sampled by any wildlife, they may eat mushrooms other times but rarely if ever in the burns here because they have so much other food. Bears tend to eat the early flowers in the burn such as dandelions. We are commercially harvesting, our morels are shipped around the world to people who aren't able to gather their own. In my opinion morels are tastier after being dried but that is definitely subjective. We have worked hard to value non-timber forest resources because of their sustainability and low carbon footprint compared to other ways of getting food, but the approach to harvesting absolutely needs to be adjusted to the environment where you are harvesting from.
@@northernwildharvest I guess I think that a resource that is local should stay local for many reasons instead of the dollar ruling the world, but you got to make a living somehow I guess. I personally don’t really care that someone who doesn’t live near morels should be able to eat them. I do respect that you have been willing to engage me though, my opinion is just my opinion, you seem like nice guys that work hard, you obviously put in the effort to go to the remote locations that are more likely for sustainable commercial picking. I don’t know if there is a right answer anymore!
@@sarahturner8678 In our case there are no locals eating them except the ones we have taught how to harvest. On this fire we happened to be friends with some of the few people who owned land in that area and they invited us to setup our camp on their property, they were very supportive about our commercial operation. We do try to sell our morels domestically or within NA if the demand is there but the 100 mile diet is hard to apply when you’re harvesting from the wilderness. Appreciate that you’re willing to discuss this, I respect your opinion. I also know that commercial activities disrupting local, more populated areas, can be frustrating - i’ve had it happen to me.
Taking more from the forest than they will ever eat. These guys are just as bad as the elk poachers and drift netters in our rivers. This is disgustin.
@@northernwildharvest I read it. You literally brag about take 445 lbs of mushrooms from a forest. Let’s see the video of you guys eating these if they are for personal consumption.
